Tag Archives: Virginia

Throwback Thursday: This McDonald’s Dollar Menu!

Ah, the halcyon days of yore — when the unhealthiest food you could eat was also the cheapest.  (Nowadays, you’ve got to be fairly RICH to harden your arteries properly.)  Another reason why the 1990’s were the goddam AWESOMEST decade.

I was a big fan of McDoubles back in the day.  I’d buy five or six at a time, eat two, and throw the remainder into the fridge for later.  Dollar-sundaes were kinda nice too.

Taco Bell was another fast food chain with some super-low prices.  I remember rolling out of the dorm half-asleep on a Sunday morning, and riding along with another hungry student to the “Taco Hell” on Route 1 in Fredericksburg (just before Falmouth Bridge.)

Beef Meximelts were $1.50 a piece, if memory serves.  And we don’t have those at ALL, today — they were discontinued!

It occurs to me only as I write this that this entire post is really just today’s version of our parents’ nostalgia in the 1980’s.  (Do any other GenXers remember them talking about how candy and soda and double-feature matinee once cost … I dunno, a fifty cents or something?)



Critterwatch 2026.

For those of you playing along at home, I also saw a catbird on Sunday.

Next spring, we should all start out with a bingo card or something.



 

Checking off the Wildlife Watchlist.

Spring is here, summer is coming.  These are the critters I’ve spotted so far:

  1. bluejays
  2. baby squirrels
  3. jumbo bumblebees
  4. red paper wasps (polistes carolina, not super fun)
  5. blackbirds
  6. bunnies
  7. a groundhog, and
  8. a cardinal couple.

UPDATE!!!!!  I just saw a Peregrine falcon chomping down in its prey!!!


 

A star is borne.

This little cousin of The Roanoke Star sends me off to sleep at night.

That 70’s Poet.

I passed a nice milestone yesterday — I’ve now seen my writing and photography appear in 70 ongoing periodicals (in addition to the anthologies and other standalone publications).

🙂



 

Horror Sleaze Trash

It’s the magazine named for me and my peer group — how could I NOT submit a poem?

Seriously, though, I am quite grateful to Editor in Chief Arthur Graham for publishing “Confession” in this superb and subversive art/lit zine “that will always be for the misfits.”

You can find the poem right here:

“Confession”



 

No Neos is good Neos.

How do I make the same embarrassing mistake at the same store one week later?  (You guessed it — I left one of my packages at the counter again, and the poor, beleaguered, young cashier had to run out after the confused old guy with it.)

It’s like a humiliating glitch in The Matrix.



 

Wells Avenue in Roanoke, Virginia, March 2026

There is just something about Virginia skies, even during a frigid March day.

That antiquated building you see is the historic Hotel Roanoke, the original iteration of which was erected in 1882 (before being rebuilt).



Roanoke, Virginia, March 2026

Looking south and west from above Shenandoah Avenue.

Roanoke, Virginia, looking south from above Shenandoah Avenue, March 2026